He quickly hung up the phone, got up, washed up in the bathroom, changed his clothes, and went downstairs. He asked Uncle He to bring him the newspaper.
Uncle He's expression was somewhat grim. Knowing what he wanted to see, he directly pulled out the entertainment section and placed it on top before handing it to him. "These reporters are getting more and more outrageous. They can twist a brotherly relationship into a sugar daddy arrangement. They have no professional ethics at all!"
The phrase "sugar daddy arrangement" made Liang Zhou's brow twitch. He picked up the newspaper and saw that nearly half a page was indeed news about him, with sensational, exaggerated headlines. The accompanying photos were from the airport yesterday—some of him hugging Shu Lin, some of him leading Shu Lin by the hand. In the most prominent spot, there was even a photo of him kissing Shu Lin's cheek.
The angle of that kiss photo was ambiguous, making it look as if it were on the lips, ripe for wild speculation.
After He Long's reminder yesterday, he had instructed him to notify all the major newspapers and media outlets. Why were there still such biased and sensational reports today? Furthermore, Guan Bowen was also with them; why wasn't he mentioned at all in the report?
The malicious intent was too obvious.
He put down the newspaper and called Zhang Qian.
"What's going on?"
"What else could it be? Your dear uncle is causing trouble again," Zhang Qian's tone was full of disgust as he spoke quickly. "I've already had people work to prevent the news from spreading further. Photos showing Xiao Yu's face clearly have all been pulled. But there's nothing we can do about the ones already printed in the newspapers and distributed. It might cause some disruption to Xiao Yu's life."
"Damn it." This was exactly what he feared the most. Shu Lin was just a student with a simple life. Even a little bit of the dark mudslinging common in the entertainment industry could be enough to shake his world.
Zhang Qian was startled by his rarely heard irritable tone and hurriedly agreed, "Yes, yes, Liang Jian is truly despicable. What do you plan to do?"
He quickly calmed down, crumpled the entertainment newspaper by his hand into a ball, threw it into the trash can, and said coldly, "First, minimize the impact of the reports, prevent the situation from spreading further. Pay attention to online chatter. If anyone posts this news online, delete it immediately! What about those dirty secrets about Ronghua you've been collecting for me?"
"They're... they're all stored. Wh-what are you planning to do?" Zhang Qian stammered, unaccustomed to his sudden change in demeanor.
"What major activities does Ronghua have coming up?"
"There's a talent show and the preliminary hype for a new idol group. That supposedly blockbuster film seems to be nearing release too; news is already out, with Yang Lin as the female lead."
Liang Zhou narrowed his eyes in thought and arranged, "During the talent show, release news about Ronghua mistreating its artists, having shady internal selection processes, and so on. Then push two of our own well-developing groups into the spotlight, arrange a variety show appearance for them, and make the promotion big to overshadow Ronghua's new group hype. As for Yang Lin... Didn't Liang Jian build her up as the 'Pure Jade Maiden'? Leak the news about her getting roles through casting couch deals online, and then just leave it be."
Zhang Qian was speechless. He dumbly noted down the arrangements and hung up the phone, clicking his tongue in amazement. Liang Zhou had always disdained doing such things before... Good heavens, could this be... a case of a man's fury flaring up for the sake of his brother?
Liang Zhou then called Guan Bowen, asking him to casually mention the airport incident during recent interviews and properly explain what happened that day. The focus of the explanation should be on them returning to the country together. As for Yu Shulin's identity, it's best to gloss over it in just a couple of sentences, simply saying he's a close relative who came to pick them up. Don't mention anything else!
After making these arrangements, he put down his phone, beckoned He Long over, and told him to go out and buy newspapers.
He Long's gaze fell on the newspaper in the trash can, somewhat confused. "Buy newspapers?"
“Go to City No. 2 High School. Buy up all the newspapers from every newsstand near the school that carried this story. It's spreading out there, that can't be helped. I just hope there aren't these messy things floating around in Shu Lin's school.” Liang Zhou waved his hand, urging him to hurry. He had slept late last night, was still jet-lagged, and had a terrible headache.
"... Understood, boss." He Long went out with a stiff expression.
In reality, the school was peaceful. Everyone was tormented by make-up classes and simply had no time to care about gossip.
Wang Zhi, who loved gossip the most, did buy a newspaper. Before morning self-study, he held up the entertainment section next to Yu Shulin for a long time, grinning. "Hey, hey, the person in this report looks a lot like you. Too bad that guy is a happy kept boy, while you're just a poor student toiling away at school. Different fates, huh. But this Liang Zhou is actually gay? That's big news. He hasn't released new work in a while; I quite liked him."
Hearing the familiar name, Yu Shulin, who was taking out his textbooks, paused. He leaned over to look at the newspaper as if nothing was wrong and asked, "Really similar? Let me see."
"Here. The photos are a bit blurry, but it does look a lot like you." Wang Zhi generously handed him the newspaper.
Yu Shulin quickly scanned the report, stared at the photos for a few seconds, adjusted his expression, looked up, stuffed the newspaper back into Wang Zhi's hands, and laughed. "This newspaper is exaggerating way too much. What 'gay'? It's probably just a gimmick. These entertainment news stories love making wild guesses. Only you would believe it."
"Heh, just looking for some fun. I didn't say I believed it either." Wang Zhi grinned cheekily; clearly, he didn't take the news seriously either.
Yu Shulin felt relieved inside but said on the surface, "Enough about this. Did you finish your English test paper? The teacher is collecting it during morning self-study."
"Oh no! I still haven't written the essay. I'm dead!" Wang Zhi exclaimed in panic, threw the newspaper aside, and turned around to dig for his test paper.
Yu Shulin smiled, lowered his head to take out and open his textbook, but his eyes gradually grew serious. He took out his phone and sent a text to Liang Zhou.
"What's going on with the news in the newspaper?"
The reply came quickly.
"Did it affect you?"
"No, no one connected it to me. What about on your end?"
Liang Zhou's tense nerves relaxed. He quickly replied, "It's fine. It's already handled. Focus on your classes."
After reading the text, Yu Shulin put his phone back in his bag, lowered his eyes, lost in thought.
Who exactly was trying to smear his brother?
The newspaper had been swept to the floor by Wang Zhi. Li Tao, having handed in his homework, passed by, bent down to pick it up, and after seeing the contents, suddenly looked up at Yu Shulin. The other was focused on reading his book, no different from usual. He lowered his eyes, folded the newspaper, stuffed it into his pocket, pressed his lips together, and lay back down on the desk.
Thanks to the swift response from Liang Zhou's team, the reporting incident turned out to be more sound than fury, failing to cause any serious negative consequences. After Guan Bowen casually brought up the incident during an interview and explained with a laugh, the news was completely reduced to a joke, forgotten by the public.
Some bored students at school who believed the reports came to gawk at Yu Shulin, but every time they came, they found him studying. Their gossipy interest gradually faded away.
Liang Zhou, however, gave up the idea of resting for a while and went directly to the company, preparing to confront Liang Jian head-on. He had been abroad for half a year, and during that time, Ronghua had been running wild domestically, growing bolder by the day.
The public opinion war between Rongguang and Ronghua had begun.
Gossip news was frequent, and the happiest were undoubtedly the gossip-loving netizens. With the rapid development of the online world, netizens who enjoyed "exposing" celebrities were gradually emerging. The user numbers on various large community websites skyrocketed, creating an atmosphere of "give me one piece of scandal, and I can expose the entire entertainment industry."
Netizens had also tried to dig up dirt on Liang Zhou, but after all their digging, apart from finding out that his father was impressive and his mother was also impressive, they only uncovered his past grudges with Liang Jian. There was not a single trace of information about the boy mentioned in the reports. After Guan Bowen's casual clarification, the netizens' curiosity was partially satisfied, yet they still felt somewhat unsatisfied—a relative's child? Which relative? If they were so close, why had Liang Zhou never mentioned him before?
However, this curiosity was soon overshadowed by new gossip events. Compared to the identity of a child, the tangled web of love, hate, and rivalry between Liang Zhou and Liang Jian, and between Rongguang and Ronghua, was clearly more captivating.
Then, the online world became even livelier.
Just as Liang Jian had ostentatiously held a press conference announcing that Ronghua's co-produced film with a foreign partner would be released strongly during the summer season, a flood of black material surfaced online claiming "the film's female lead is a white lotus who rose through the ranks by sleeping her way to the top."
Yang Lin had been the female star with the best development momentum in the past two years. She had many works, was affectionate towards fans, and with her gentle and elegant beauty, she presented the image of a virtuous wife and loving mother, earning much goodwill from the audience. Now, with her scandal exposed, the public exclaimed that appearances could be deceiving, while netizens grew excited, spontaneously digging deeper. And as they dug, they actually uncovered quite a bit.
Chaotic private life? True! Rose through sleeping with people? True! News of her secretly meeting with Ronghua's young master, Liang Zixiu, in the middle of the night... also seemed to be true! It was just that Liang Jian had paid to suppress it.
The "Jade Girl" turned into a "slut," how thrilling!
This kind of exposure could be considered an alternative form of promotion for the film, but Liang Jian had originally intended to use this film to establish his company's image as high-end, classy, and internationally connected. Now, with Yang Lin's reputation tarnished by scandal, the film's prestige had been dragged down more than a few notches, and the company's image had become a joke.
He was utterly filled with regret. How could he have been so bewitched back then to let that Yang Lin play the female lead? The company wasn't lacking other top-tier actresses with good images and reputations!
Before he could even catch his breath from this, Guan Bowen revealed in an exclusive interview that his new film had already been secretly shot and would meet the audience once post-production was complete.
This dropped like a stone causing a thousand ripples. That was Guan Bowen! How long had it been since this film emperor acted in a movie? Everyone thought he was about to retire!
The public's enthusiasm was ignited. Upon learning that Liang Zhou had also participated in the film's production and that it was a collaboration with Hollywood, the excitement reached a new peak.
The film emperor's new movie! The comeback work of Rongguang's boss, Liang Zhou! A collaboration with Hollywood!
Each point was incredibly exciting! Fans felt they were about to suffocate with anticipation.
Liang Zhou, who had gradually faded from the public eye, once again found himself needing to disguise himself to go out. As the disguises gradually became ineffective, he simply started wearing a mask, hat, and sunglasses every day, bundled up tightly, or simply stopped going out, having He Long bring work to his home.
Brazen paparazzi, in order to get first-hand news about the film, actually managed to find the villa district where Liang Zhou lived, staking out the entrance every day.
Yu Shulin happened to encounter them a few times. Perhaps because he looked well-behaved and easy to talk to, the paparazzi even grew bold enough to pull him aside to ask about which specific villa Liang Zhou lived in, whether he liked to go out often, if he ever brought strangers back to the villa... things like that.
He told Liang Zhou about it as a joke, not taking it to heart at all, but Liang Zhou's face darkened, and he started considering moving.
If they moved, it couldn't be to a worse place. The new home had to be close to City No.2 High School, and the conditions couldn't be too poor—at least comparable to the current villa district. Security and property management also had to be reliable. The residents in the community couldn't be a mix of all sorts of dubious characters...
He Long kept a straight face as he took notes, but eventually stopped writing, looking speechlessly at his boss. "I think... it would be better for you and Young Master Shulin to continue living here."
"Why?" Liang Zhou frowned. "The paparazzi have already come knocking."
"At least the paparazzi can't get in. Other residential areas around City No.2 High School can't guarantee that." He Long felt helpless. He always felt his boss's style had been a bit off lately.
Liang Zhou pondered for a long moment and realized the situation was indeed as He Long said. Among the residential areas near City No.2 High School, the one they currently lived in was the best.
They couldn't move; there was nowhere to move to... His face darkened. He got up and went upstairs, pulling out a calendar and the work plan for the second half of the year.
Just when could he finally retire?
